Savage files suit in U.K., charging British home secretary Jaqui Smith with defamation

Conservative San Francisco-based talk show host Michael Savage has made good on his promise to sue British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for defamation — though British officials are defending her decision to ban him from the United Kingdom.

“As the home secretary has already said, he was excluded for engaging in unacceptable behaviour by making comments that might provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence,” a British official Sunday told the Daily Mail.

Savage sued Smith because the “name and shame” list of 16 individuals compiled by the home secretary put him in the same crowd with former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black, Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal, Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky and Baptist pastor Fred Waldron Phelps, who heads a notoriously anti-gay church.

In a letter filed this weekend, Savage’s British attorneys said that by including his name on the list of known criminals and terrorists, Smith has linked the talk show host to heinous acts and dangerous individuals in a manner that has endangered his life and livelihood.

“The allegations are entiely false,” said Savage’s lawyers, of the firm of Olswang LLP, in a letter obtained by the Chronicle. “At no time has our client provoked or sought to provoke others to commit crimes or serious criminal acts.”

The letter demands payment of an unspecified “substantial sum” in damages, retraction of the allegations and a personal and public apology from Smith.

The home secretary spokesman said that the decision to ban Savage from the country was correct because “coming to the UK is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life.”

Savage, a popular best selling author, was the only talk show host on the list; his “Savage Nation” reaches an estimated 8 million to 10 million listeners on 376 radio stations nationwide, according to industry publications.

“This lunatic … is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing people in Russia, she’s putting me in a league with Hamas murderers who kill Jews on busses,” he said. “I have never advocated violence …she has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,” he said. “Does she not think people might hunt me down?”

Savage has since said he has had to employ security guards to protect himself and his family because of the actions of the British government.